Tuesday, September 30, 2014ROOTSTOWN, Ohio -- When the semester at Northeast Ohio Medical University began, the final touches were being put on the NEOMED Education and Wellness Center, colloquially known as the NEW Center. The final coats of paint were being applied and the last of the sidewalks built as students set foot on campus for the first time or returned after a summer of working in clinics and hospitals.
On Monday Jay Gershen, president, dedicated the newly-finished NEW Center, which boasts features such as new lecture halls, two restaurants -- a coffee shop and a bistro -- and the Biomed Academy, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics- focused high school.
“This is for the benefit of the students, faculty and staff, as well as the community. We want to bring the community in and we want the community to feel this university is their university and then can use these facilities,” Gershen said.
The center was completed in 16 months at a cost of $166 million, none of which came from taxpayers. Bonds will be paid for through leases for NEW Center space, memberships to the Sequoia Wellness center exercise center and leases in The Village, NEOMED's four-building student housing complex.
“A lot of the students are really ecstatic about having this on campus. Between the coffee shop, the gourmet food, even the student lounge, we have a chance to relax and to study at the same time. We all like it,” second-year student Ramsey Ataya said.
Biomed Academy, Gershen said, is the only rural STEM high school in Ohio and the only rural STEM school on the campus of a medical university in the nation.
“We're proud of it because it breaks down the walls between K-12 and high education. It allows younger people to pursue medicine, technology, engineering, math skills early in their student lives and figure out what direction they want to go in,” he added.
Members of the NEOMED community across the board -- from students all the way up to Gershen -- are involved in mentoring students at Biomed Academy. One of the student groups Ataya is involved in, he said, will be working with students to build portable solar chargers for cell phones.
At the end of the dedication ceremony, Gershen announced the university would be partnering with Pharmacy Innovations LLC, part of Integrated Wellness Partners in Akron, and Summa Health Systems, Akron, to bring its facilities to the NEW Center.
Gershen called the offices that will be added a “training ground,” stating that NEOMED students “are hands on, particularly in their third and fourth year. They'll be doing the same things they do in their third- and fourth-year clerkships. This will be another rotation for them. They'll treat patients as a pharmacist or physician does with the supervision of a faculty member.”
With nearly one third of its 1,200 physicians having graduated from NEOMED, Summa is looking at providing students with mentors as they go through their education. The physician that will head the offices at NEOMED will most likely be a graduate of the university, CEO Tom Strauss said, and is expected to be named in December or January. Summa's facilities will occupy 10,000 square feet in the NEW Center, with the possibility of expansion in the future.
Strauss added that having open offices on campus will continue Summa’s mission of providing care that is low cost and can keep patients from expensive hospital stays.
“Our mission is to provide the highest-quality compassionate care and contribute to a healthy community,” he said. “[We want to] get the right care, the right focus for the patient at the right time at the right place at the right cost.”
Ataya, who had a fellowship with Summa over the summer, says having the ability to work with doctors and patients before graduating will be a huge advantage for students once they graduate.
“I felt the importance of having simulation at the campus. Having the clinic available will give us real life experience in terms of not only improving our clinical practice, but in terms of engaging our community as well,” he commented. “From that, I think we'll be a lot more prepared for the real world as we transition into physicians.”
Pictured: Participating in the ribbon cutting are U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci; Kim Ruhlin, president/CEO, The Ruhlin Co.; Jay Gershen, president, NEOMED; Tony Manna, chairman, Signet Enterprises; Tom Strauss, president/CEO, Summa Health System; and Chandler Kohli, chairman, NEOMED board of trustees.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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